Chapter 7

After dropping Heather and Kristy off, Tony and Pruett decided to split up and look for another cameraman to help them film all the sexual activities they required to complete their video of Girls Gone Wild, 2007. Pruett said he knew of a guy, in the adjacent town, who might work out. Tony had another guy in mind, but hadn't seen him in over a year, and he started out by hitting some places he had had drinks with him, hoping to find him that way.

Pruett took the van while Tony borrowed a beat-up Dodge pickup from Garth, one of the bartenders at Hobie's Bar, leaving a cloud of oil in his wake.

Tony was looking for a former colleague named Barely Black, so named because of his father's warped sense of humor. Harvey Black, on seeing his albino son for the first time at the local hospital, insisted on naming him Barely, because he was in fact, barely black. His hair was straight, and not kinky, and only his lips betrayed the fact that he was Afro-American.

Tony drove into the black section of town and parked in a lot across the street from Chug — Chug's Bar and Grill. He walked in and found himself in an almost pitch black interior. Only the neon Keystone Beer sign threw any light on the bar itself, and until his eyes got used to the darkness, Tony might as well have been blind.

"Whut you gonna have?" a gravely voice asked from the darkness.

"Um, gimme a Keystone, I guess," Tony replied, his eyes just beginning to adjust to the dim lighting.

The bartender was a giant of a man, with an eye patch covering his long-missing left eye. He reached down into a cooler and brought out an ice-covered bottle of Keystone, and slapped it on the bar in front of Tony.

"Two dollah," the huge black man told Tony.

"I'm looking for a friend of mine," Tony said, handing him a five.

The bartender ignored him, turning to ring up the sale and then back again, slapping three singles on the bar next to Tony's beer.

"I said..." Tony began.

"I heard you," the bartender growled. "Ain't nobody by that name ever come in here."

"But I never gave you his name," Tony protested.

"Drink the fuckin' beer and git," the bartender snarled and gave him a menacing look.

"I'm not the law," Tony said.

"Don't give a fuck who you are. This ain't an information booth."

Tony took a swallow of his beer, set the bottle down lightly on the bar, and walked out into the blazing sunlight.

Not having the slightest idea where Barely Black lived, he began entering each business along the street. At the fourth shop he got his first lead.

"You mean that albino, the funny name?" an elderly woman asked.

"Yes," Tony said, excitedly. "Barely Black is his name. He's a..."

He got no further, for the woman was waving her skinny arm in his face. "He live on dat street over dere," she told him, pointing across the street. "Five door down, maybe second, third floor. I'm not sure, dat," she said.

"Thank you very much," he told her, and gave her his winningest smile, which was very well received. Then he started across the street, counting each building as he passed by.

Barely lived on the second floor, and to Tony's surprise, he was home, and called down to Tony, telling him to, "Come on up."

Tony scampered up the two flights of stairs, and huffing hard, knocked on the door.

"S'open!" Barely yelled out. Tony carefully stepped inside, and to his amazement, found Barely with his leg in a cast that went from ankle to hip.

"Hi, man," he said in greeting. "What the hell happened to you?"

"I'll tell you what happened to the damn fool," said a gorgeous black female, who stepped into the room from what must have been the bedroom.

"Oh, Tony," Barely said, "let me introduce you two. Essence, this is my good friend, Tony. We went to high school together. Tony, this is Essence D'Kunze, the love of my life."

"Hi, pleased to meet you," Tony said, looking Barely's sultry girlfriend over, and doing his best not to laugh. This couple had by far the weirdest names of anyone he'd ever met.

"Likewise," she said, looking him over as well. "Now what happened to this idiot was that..."

Barely interrupted her. "I was at a party... without Essence. I will regret that to my dying day," he said.

"Might be this afternoon, you don't get your act together," she said, and did not laugh, as Tony had thought she would.

"Someone slipped some shit into my drink..." Barely started saying.

"Could have killed him," Essence added.

"Didn't you read about me in the papers... or see it on the news?" Barely asked.

"I ain't had time for either of late... that's why I'm here."

Still talking as if Tony hadn't spoken at all, Barely rambled on.

"Like Essence said, someone drugged me good. I was at a party... a hotel party... I think it was the penthouse. Anyway, I must have wandered out into the hall, and saw my reflection in a window at the end of the corridor."

Tony, listening closely, nodded.

"Anyway," Barely said, "I mustn't of liked what I seen, cause... and I don't remember this... it's been put together for me by several witnesses. I started running at myself... well, the me I seen in the window and I ran through the damn window."

"Jesus!" Tony gasped.

Essence finished the story for Barely. "Yeah, through the window and sixteen floors later he hit the ground."

"You fell sixteen floors?"

Barely grinned at Tony, "And here I is, alive and kickin'."

"Well, you ain't exactly kicking," Essence said, giving him a loving look. "He hit a canvas awning on the way down, second story, I think. Broke his fall, for sure, and his leg. But thank God he's here, the stupid albino -- bast..."

"Enough of that," Barely said, "Anyway, it's good to see you again, Tony. What brings you around here anyway?"

"Well, I did have a job offer for you, but seeing's how you're laid up and all, I guess..."

"He can use the money," Essence said, giving Barely's shoulder a sharp poke.

"Yeah, I surely can use the money," Barely said. "What do you need me to do?"

Tony thought quickly, "Still got that digital video camera?"

"Yup."

"Can you use it with the leg that way?"

"He sure can," Essence said, "I can help him carry it around, and all."

"Okay," Tony said. "Let me tell you what I'm up to, and why I need that camera."

Tony brought the couple up to date on what he and Pruett had been doing with the van. Essence thought it wonderfully funny, Barely had serious doubts. Doubts about being able to function in the van, about convincing what had to be mostly white girls to allow a black man to film them fucking one another, and so on.

"What about my brother's place?" Essence asked.

Tony said, "Your brother's place?" echoing her.

"Yeah, he's got a warehouse near that bar... shit, help me out here, Barely," she said.

"Um, you mean Hobie's?"

"That's it!" she said excitedly, "Hobie's Place."

Tony nodded, "Hobie's Bar, yeah, that'd be perfect. I mean we could pick the girls up anywhere, bring 'em to the warehouse and shoot all damn day and night, we have too."

"Can you guys start tomorrow?"

"Sure," Essence said. "I'll call my brother and set everything up."

"You be needing lights and all that shit, right, Tony?"

"Right, lights, and shit."

"Um, I hate to be a pest, Tony, but how much are you paying us?" Essence asked.

"I don't know," he replied. And before she could scream at him for wasting their time, he hastily added, "How's 40% after expenses?"

Skeptically, Barely asked, "Forty percent of what?"

"Well, me and Pruett bought the van, and then there's the editing and all..."

Barely said, "I can help with that, especially being laid up and all," his tone a bit happier than moments earlier.

"So you're shooting an X-rated movie?" Essence said, also sounding a little mollified.

"Yeah, with average, maybe above average, looking girls. Get them to eat one another, maybe fuck 'em. Least that's the way it's gone down so far."

"They old enough, Tony?" Essence asked.

"Oh, yeah, we get their driver's license on tape before we film anything."

Barely inquired, "What... if you don't mind me asking, do you pay them?"

"T-shirts," Tony said, and smiled at Essence. "Want a couple?"

She laughed at him. "I'm not gonna be in any fuck movie."

"I know, I know," Tony said. "I was just asking."

Essence wilted a little. She thought Tony cute, and was anxious to see him humping some white bitches. "I'll take three, give one to a sister I know. She'd suck a cock for it, and love being in a movie, you want her to."

The deal finalized, Tony took his leave, and got back into the Dodge pickup and was soon passing by the sandy beach filled with Spring Break students and their garbage: crushed cans of cheap beer; the condoms or bottles of Nair handed out as promotional gifts by sponsors; and orphaned beach towels, half submerged in the drifting sand as if by ash from a volcano. The smell of beer threatened to overpower the sunshine and sea brine.